Tomah Health Joins with County on COVID Vaccinations

Tomah Health joined with the Monroe County Health Department to provide COVID-19 vaccines to area health care employees and essential workers. 

“Tomah Health has always been an important player in the community, and when it came time for COVID vaccinations, it just made sense to work with the health department and use our mutual relationship in order to coordinate as many people as we can to get vaccinated,” said Tomah Health employee health nurse Julie Anderson, M.S.N., R.N.

Monroe County Health Department Health Officer and Director Tiffany Giesler, R.N., said the partnership is crucial to get the vaccine distributed. “No one organization can do this by themselves, so having this partnership is the only way we are going to get everybody who needs the vaccine and wants the vaccine to be vaccinated. This partnership with Tomah Health is crucial for us to get the COVID vaccine out to everybody,” said Giesler, who has been with the health department about three years and stepped into the director’s position Dec. 28, 2020, replacing director Sharon Nelson who retired after 35 years. 

“There are a lot of moving pieces when it comes to vaccinating our whole community as well as our state so that collaboration with federal, state and local partners is crucial,” Geisler said. “We are all working together to figure out the most efficient way to get the vaccine out and looking for further guidance from the state for each of those categories moving forward and again working with our partners to identify how we can do that together.” 

Both Giesler and Anderson said until the vaccine is available to the public, residents should continue to be vigilant. “This virus is real; it doesn’t just have short-term impacts, but long-term impacts, and what we do on a day-to-day basis not only protects ourselves as well as others. Even with a vaccination, we still need to continue to our part,” Geisler added.